Literature

Anyiwo, U. M. (2014). Outside/In: Using Vampires to Explore Diversity and Alienation in a College Classroom. In L. A. Nevárez & S. George (Eds.), The Vampire Goes to College: Essays on Teaching with the Undead (pp. 45-55). Jefferson, NC: McFarland. (PDF)

This essay gives an in-depth look into a course that introduces students to the ideas of racial identity through the "back door" of genre fiction. The students depicted by Anyiwo may strike Reed professors as more resistant to discussions privilege and racism than the average Reed student may be, but there are helpful tips to be found in this work as to how one can introduce these potentially fraught ideas into a classroom.

Barst advocates for a class discussion of diversity early on in the class, so every student can develop a fruitful definition of diversity that goes beyond "lip service." She also believes that the professor should ground every text in cultural and historical contexts before the students read the text, and develop discussion-based activities and assignments that continually refine students' ideas of diversity using the texts in question.

Carlin, D. (2011). The Intersectional Potential of Queer Theory: An Example from a General Education Course in English. In M. L. Ouellett (Ed.), An Integrative Analysis Approach to Diversity in the College Classroom (pp. 55-64). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. (PDF)

This article is primarily helpful because it shows how to design a class focusing on queer theory and literature step by step. This should be read by any professor interested in discussing queerness in their classroom.

Schlund-Vials examines the recent history of race relations in the United States in order to argue that it has become more important, not less, to teach minority (literature) studies. While this has become increasingly relevant since Schlund-Vials wrote this piece, there are still compelling and well-formulated points to be found in this article.

Zitzer-Comfort, C. (2008). Teaching Native American Literature: Inviting Students to See the World through Indigenous Lenses. Pedagogy: Critical Approaches to Teaching Literature, Language, Composition, and Culture, 8(1), 160-170. (PDF)

This article discusses how to best approach minority literatures that students may not be as familiar with compared to other majority (i.e. American, British) or well-known minority literatures (i.e. African-American). Zitzer-Comfort offers several practical tools that work to dismantle previous misconceptions of the minority and build a more nuanced view of the culture. This is recommended for any professor who wants to discuss a minority that they feel is still clouded by misinformation.